1856
Year 1856 (MDCCCLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1856 January - June : Victoria Cross.]] * January 8 - Borax is discovered (John Veatch). * January 24 - U.S. President Franklin Pierce declares the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion. * January 29 - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross * February - The Tintic War in Utah. * February 1 - Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College. * February 7 - The nawab of Oudh Wajid Ali Shah is exiled to Metiabruz * February 18 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore. * March 5 - Fire destroys Covent Garden Theatre * March 6 - Maryland Agricultural College (present-day University of Maryland) chartered * March 9 - National Fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. * March 20 - Costa Rican troops rout Walker's soldiers * March 24 - Taiping Rebellion: Suspecting treachery on the part of East King Yang Xiuqing, Shi Dakai garrisons Anhui and begins his march back to the Heavenly Capital, having defeated a strong Xiang Army dettachment. * March 31 - The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War : Covent Garden Theatre fire.]] * April 7 - Foundation of Nelson College, Nelson * April 10 - Theta Chi Fraternity founded at Norwich University * May 1 - The creation of Isabela province in the Philippines in honor to the Queen of Spain, Queen Isabela II. * May 16 - the Vigilance Committee founded in San Francisco. It lynches two gangsters, arrests most Democratic Party officials and disbands itself on August 18 * May 21 - Lawrence is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces (the "Sacking of Lawrence"). * May 22 - Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas"). Sumner was unable to return to duty for three years while he recovered. Brooks became a hero across the South. * May 24 - The Pottawatomie Massacre - group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill five homesteaders in Franklin County * June 2 - Battle of Black Jack between proslavery and antislavery forces, led by John Brown, in Bleeding Kansas. * June 9 - 500 Mormons leave Iowa City and head west for Salt Lake City carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts. * June 13 - Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at Nanjing. July - December * July 17 - The Great Train Wreck of 1856 was the worst railroad calamity in the world to date, occurring near Philadelphia, PA, USA. * July 31 - Christchurch chartered as a city. * August 10 - Hurricane destroys Last Island - 400 dead. The whole island was broken up into several smaller islands by the storm. * August 30 - Battle of Osawatomie between proslavery and antislavery forces in Bleeding Kansas. * September 1 - Seton Hall University was founded by Archdiocese of Newark Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, a cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt and nephew of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. * September 2 - Taiping Rebellion: Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang assassinate Yang Xiuqing. * October 8 - The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River. * November 1 - Anglo-Persian War: War Is declared between Great Britain and Persia. * November 4 - U.S. presidential election: Democrat James Buchanan defeats former President Millard Fillmore, representing a coalition of "Know-Nothings" and Whigs, and John C. Frémont of the fledgling Republican Party to become the 15th President of the United States. * November 11 - Taiping Rebellion: Shi Dakai arrives at the Heavenly Capital once more with 100,000 men and demands that Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang be executed. Shi subsequently becomes head of the government. * November 17 - American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase. * November 21 - Niagara University founded in Niagara Falls. * December 9 - Bushehr surrenders to the British. Undated .]] * Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics. * British Country and Borough Police Act extends London police model to all of England and Wales. * Kate Warner, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency * Pre-human remains found in the Neanderthal valley in Germany. * National Portrait Gallery in London opened. * Founding year of St. Paul's School, Camp, Belgaum. *Western Union is founded. Ongoing events * Anglo-Persian War (1856-1857) * Crimean War (1854-1856) * Second Opium War (1856-1860) * Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) Births January - June *January 11 - Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (d. 1941) *January 12 - John Singer Sargent, American-born artist (d. 1925) *February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (d. 1938) *February 14 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (d. 1931) *March 4 - Alfred William Rich, English watercolour painter and author (d. 1921) *March 8 **Bramwell Booth, Salvation Army general (d. 1929) **Tom Roberts, Australian artist (d. 1931) *March 16 - Napoléon Eugène Louis John Joseph, Prince Imperial, son of French Emperor Napoleon III (d. 1879) *March 20 **Sir John Lavery, Irish artist (d. 1941) **Frederick Winslow Taylor, American inventor and efficiency expert (d. 1915) *April 5 - Booker T. Washington, American educator (d. 1915) *April 12 - William Martin Conway, British art critic and mountaineer (d. 1937) *April 24 - Henri Philippe Pétain, French soldier and statesman (d. 1951) *April 26 - Sir Joseph Ward, 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930) *April 27 - Tongzhi Emperor, Emperor of China (d. 1875) *May 6 **Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (d. 1939) **Robert Peary, American Arctic explorer (d. 1920) *May 15 - L. Frank Baum, American author (d. 1919) *June 14 - Andrey Markov, Russian mathematician (d. 1922) July - December *July 23 - Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian political activist (d. 1920) *July 10 - Nikola Tesla, Serbian inventor (d. 1943) *July 26 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950) *August 10 - William Willett, inventor of Daylight Saving Time (d. 1915) *August 13 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1919) *August 15 - Ivan Franko, Ukrainian poet, critic, journalist and political activist (d. 1916) *September 1 - Sergei Winogradsky, Russian scientist (d. 1953) *September 18 - Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (d. 1931) *November 13 - Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1941) *November 21 - William Emerson Ritter, American biologist (d. 1944) *November 22 - Heber J. Grant, seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1945) *November 24 - Bat Masterson, American lawman (d. 1921) *November 29 - Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1921) *December 13 - Svetozar Boroević, Austrian field marshal (d. 1920) *December 18 - J.J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940) *December 22 - Frank B. Kellogg, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937) *December 25 - Hans von Bartels, German painter (d. 1913) *December 28 - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1924) : See also 1856 births. Deaths * January 16 - Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b. 1795) * January 31 - Khedrup Gyatso, eleventh Dalai Lama (b. 1838) * February 17 - Heinrich Heine, German writer (b. 1797) * May 3 - Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (b. 1803) * June 23 - Ivan Kireevsky, Russian literary critic and philosopher (b. 1806) * July 9 - Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist (b. 1776) * July 29 - Robert Schumann, German composer and pianist * August 29 - Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (b. 1778) * August 30 - Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (b. 1811) * October 19 - William Sprague III, American politician from Rhode Island (b. 1799) : See also 1856 deaths.